In Memory 
1924-1999

Ella Mae Morse passed away in Bullhead City Arizona
Sat. October 16th, 1999 at 8:58 PM.

The former Capital Records Gold Record recording star died from complications due to cancer. She is survived by her husband of 40 years, Jack Bradford, her six children, Laura Bradford of Bullhead City, AZ., Dan Bradford of Lomita, CA., Kenny Kendall,  Marcia Mar of Sacramento, Anne Prewitt of Bellevue, WA,  Dick Gerber of Prescott Arizona, plus several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

A Memorial Service was held Thursday, October 28th 1:00PM at
 Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, California with hundreds of  family, friends and fans in attendance. Pastor Chris Cannon led the service and there was a video presentation lovingly assembled by one of Ella's sons, Dan Bradford. Jazz great, Gerald Wiggins, played a piano number at the memorial. Ella Mae Morse touched so many lives and will be missed greatly by all who knew her and her music over the years.

Ella Mae with good friend, Dick Ryan and Dickie
San Diego 1946

I was finally able to sit down with my Mother a few years ago and I came to realize that she did the best job she knew how in trying to raise me.  Good grief, she was a big star and just a kid herself!  We were able to talk about those days and put away some of the pain  we both had carried for years.

The little boy that lives in me will always love his Mommy, but I'm sorry to say that the grownup never got a chance to become friends with her. Funny, I think we were both okay with that. She finally stopped beating herself up for what she thought was a bad job being a Mother, and I was able realize that she did the best job she knew how to do in a very tough time in her life. I am so glad we took the time to talk about those things. She was one of the greatest singers of her time. Rest in peace Mommy....you're not forgotten now, and....you never were.

Love,
Dickie

Ella Mae and Johnny Mercer

Ella Mae's voice.

Ella Mae Morse was one of the most exciting vocalists of the 1940s and 50s, a hard-to-classify, Texas-born white singer who knocked everyone out with her hip, black-inflected vocals from the moment she hit the scene as a seventeen-year-old with boogie pianist Freddie Slack's Orchestra in 1942. Her vocal that year on the huge hit Cow Cow Boogie, quickly established her as a name, and dozens of hits followed, both with Slack and under her own name. Sides like the Buzz Me, The House Of Blue Lights, Pig Foot Pete, The Blacksmith Blues remain classics, and The House Of Blue Lights, in particular, has been hailed as one of the seminal recordings in rock and roll history. Uncommonly versatile, Ella Mae could handle anything, from jazz to country, from R&B to lush pop. As she herself has said, “Cliffie Stone said: 'You're a country singer.' And Benny Carter said: 'You're a jazz singer.' T-Bone Walker said: 'You're a rock and roll-blues singer.'

To listen to some of my Mothers songs, CLICK HERE!

Ella Mae and Dick Ryan

Her movies:

Reveille with Beverly (1943)
South of Dixie (1944)
Ghost Catchers (1944)
How Do You Do (1946)

She was all of the above and then some: an instinctive, insouciant, sexy stylist with an innate feel for the blues that
 colored and characterized virtually everything she sang. Ella Mae Morse's entire output over her fifteen year tenure with Capitol Records (1942-1957), a label she helped put on the map. Ella Mae worked with the likes of  Freddie Slack, Benny Carter, Barney Kessel, Gerald Wiggins, Pete Johnson, Jimmy Rowles, Red Callender, Al Hendrickson, Jimmy Bryant, Speedy West, Alvin Stoller, and countless others. In later years, Ella Mae could be found at Disneyland in Anaheim singing with her old friends Ray McKinley and Bob Crosby.